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Sitting in Judgment in Dragon Age: Inquisition

The Gaming Years - Tue, 07/07/2015 - 00:28

The first time I sat in judgment, for the crime of using time travel to further his own end, I sentenced the Gereon Alexius to death. As the Inquisitor, it is my responsibility to render a decision where a life is at stake. The decision to not only sentence Alexius to death but actually carry out that sentence hasn’t come back to haunt me like I feared it would, though looking back through some walkthroughs of the storyline (one of which is below), I now have second thoughts. Did I execute someone for a prevented future crime rather than a past crime? That is, Alexius was evil in a future I thwarted by returning back in time to the point I was thrown forward from.

Either way, up until this sequence, I was skeptical about the whole Dragon Age: Inquisition narrative. This plot won me over.

The second time I sat in judgment, it was for the Mayor of Crestwood, who effectively signed the death sentence for ailing refugees. He lied to me when I first confronted him, accusing the Darkspawn of killing them when it would later emerge that he flooded the area to defeat the Darkspawn at the cost of innocent lives. (I had to drain the lake to close a fade that Darkspawn still emerged from.)

The following shows a version of this storyline as played by someone else.

https://medium.com/media/683114039fbab1f881a0535e698029bc/href

Uncovering his confession, and after arresting him, I sentenced him not to die but rather to exile because it was not a black-and-white crime, hoping outsiders’ perception of the punishment matched the nuance surrounding the crime.

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Here I am sitting on my throne a third time, in this case against Mistress Poulin, who sold a quarry to the red templars, who used it to enslave people to grow red lyrium. While technically a crime, she made a deal with the Devil to feed her people.

The following walkthrough was exactly the same as my experience and decision. I could have executed her, but that was too harsh with no upside for me politically. I made the same choice (I would later find out) as in the following ‘walkthrough’ of the judgment.

https://medium.com/media/7f1f57a62a42b137178f481e7f7a28a0/href

Even though it’s just a video game, sitting in judgment is a game mechanic that gave me pause. Nowhere else in the game am I more conscious about my decisions, and nowhere am I more worried about what the effects are on the story down the road. I’m looking forward to the other times I get to sit on the throne and consider the guilt and fates of those who come before me.

Sitting in Judgment in Dragon Age: Inquisition was originally published in The Gaming Years on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Year of Races

Just a Gwai Lo - Sun, 06/28/2015 - 19:26

The Couch-to-5k program got me started running, which carved out time to listen to podcasts, and inspired by the runners in my Twitter timeline I ran my first 5k race, the 2014 Scotiabank a year ago this weekend. For the 2015 event, I set two goals for the same race: run a personal best 1 kilometre over the course of the race, and run a best overall for a 5k. I achieved both, and would have done even better if it weren't for a heatwave.

Published by Richard on June 28th, 2015

A Year of Races

Just a Gwai Lo - Sun, 06/28/2015 - 19:26

The Couch-to-5k program got me started running, which carved out time to listen to podcasts, and inspired by the runners in my Twitter timeline I ran my first 5k race, the 2014 Scotiabank a year ago this weekend. For the 2015 event, I set two goals for the same race: run a personal best 1 kilometre over the course of the race, and run a best overall for a 5k. I achieved both, and would have done even better if it weren't for a heatwave. Read more about A Year of Races

Published by Richard on June 28th, 2015

Customer Care Experiences from the Other Side: Company A

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:00

First in a series on customer care as seen through the eyes of someone who’s done support but is a frequent consumer of support as well.

Published by Richard on June 23rd, 2015

Customer Care Experiences from the Other Side: Company A

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 06/23/2015 - 13:00

First in a series on customer care as seen through the eyes of someone who’s done support but is a frequent consumer of support as well. Read more about Customer Care Experiences from the Other Side: Company A

Published by Richard on June 23rd, 2015

Series Introduction: Customer Care Experiences from the Other Side

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:22

My desire as a power user to get what I want from software is always tempered by my days in the early 2000s as an Internet trainer, the mid-2000s doing customer support at Bryght (the Drupal-powered hosted service, not the online furniture retailer), and, maybe to a lesser extent doing client work in the early 2010s at OpenRoad and Chapter Three. Those experiences gave me insight into the possibilities and limitations software companies face in delivering customer and client happiness. Read more about Series Introduction: Customer Care Experiences from the Other Side

Published by Richard on June 9th, 2015

Three Dragon Age Multiplayer Thoughts

The Gaming Years - Mon, 06/08/2015 - 14:26

This weekend’s multiplayer challenge in Dragon Age: Inquisition encouraged us, as a party, defeat a total of 10 commanders. The Red Templar Commander has been the most difficult commander to date. That was true until I figured out that, for a higher rate of success, in the words of Monty Python, I should attack and then “Run Away!” I’ve learned to love fighting the Red Templar Commander, because he yells out “Those were my men!” and about halfway through trying to kill him, he drinks red lyrium and regains strength. Finally killing the Red Templar Commander has the right effort-to-payoff ratio.

This weekend I learned to love the Alchemist, which combines the stabby-stabby of then and incognito powers of the Assassin with the ability to throw mines that explode when an enemy comes near. I’m just now getting the hang of setting a trap for groups of enemies to walk into, and even revived myself once as I got a TK-granting kill after the enemy that slayer me got blown up just afterwards. Breaking with the niceties of other characters, the Alchemist asks how come it took so long instead of thanking someone for reviving them. (Think of reviving as a member of your party playing the medic and coming over when you’re wounded and giving you just enough will to live.) I helped slay two Red Templar commanders by throwing mines, waiting for the ability to cool down, and then throwing another set of bombs. In both cases we killed the commander well before the rest of the enemies died, leading to some awkward moments where I was, uh, making sure the commander was dead.

It’s been harder than expected to find information and tips on the multiplayer mode, at least on the unofficial wikis out there. There are forum posts here and there, but questions like how to defeat the Red Templar Commander and what’s the best approach for using the Virtuoso keep coming up. I worked on my own that out that having two Virtuosos, one setting a barrier for the party and another killing enemies gives a mission a high success probability. (Is there a non-verbal way to communicate which Virtuoso is taking on which role?) I’d love to see more tactics and strategy guides for multiplayer.

Three Dragon Age Multiplayer Thoughts was originally published in The Gaming Years on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You Have Been Kicked From the Game

The Gaming Years - Fri, 06/05/2015 - 23:55

Some emotions I felt after being kicked out of a Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer lobby:

  • Shame. I felt ashamed that the character I chose performed so badly. I chose the my level 5 Assassin (pictured above) on my first mission of the day, so my PS4™ fingers weren’t warm yet. I have since upgraded the Assassins weapons, abilities, and leveled up.
  • Anger. I was angry that they did not communicate with me about the reason for kicking me out.
  • Disappointment. I was, and still am, disappointed about the time I chose my level 12 legionnaire and performed OK (the same problem as before, cold PS4™ fingers) and on the second try with the same group, selected my level 1 Virtuoso. Unbeknownst to the group, he was once a level 20 Virtuoso which I promoted to get the willpower bonus for my other mages. On your own character list, DA:I tells you how many times you’ve promoted a character, but there’s no obvious way to showcase that when entering a lobby. The information presented is already dense (it shows your character selection, level, and if you know what you’re doing, you can show off a portrait or banner or title if you have any of those).

I’ve had to nominate a player or two for banishment, but only because we could no longer wait for them to join our game. At least the system is democratic in that no one person on their own can throw someone out.

You Have Been Kicked From the Game was originally published in The Gaming Years on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Osoyoos

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 05/26/2015 - 18:57

Photos of my trip to the Okanagan Valley during the Memorial Day long weekend. Read more about Osoyoos

Published by Richard on May 26th, 2015

Bare-Bones Sports Alerts in Slack

Just a Gwai Lo - Mon, 04/13/2015 - 02:56

Instructions on how to get specialized sports alerts in Slack using Twitter. Read more about Bare-Bones Sports Alerts in Slack

Published by Richard on April 12th, 2015

Introducing Slack-Twitter

Just a Gwai Lo - Wed, 03/25/2015 - 01:45

Do you like Slack? Do you like Twitter? Would you like to use Twitter in your Slack? Read more about Introducing Slack-Twitter

Published by Richard on March 24th, 2015

There’s More to the Remembering Than Just What You Paid Attention To

One Stack Deep - Mon, 02/09/2015 - 00:11

Scientific American reported in December 2011 of research on the doorway effect, which is forgetting what you were going to do as soon as you entered a different room in your abode. Gabriel A. Radvanskya, Sabine A. Krawietza & Andrea K. Tamplina published a paper showing in experiments that people recalled less walking through a doorway than walking the same distance without a doorway.

From the Scientific American report:

Is it walking through the doorway that causes the forgetting, or is it that remembering is easier in the room in which you originally took in the information? Psychologists have known for a while that memory works best when the context during testing matches the context during learning; this is an example of what is called the encoding specificity principle.

Except that walking back to the room in which you thought of what you wanted to do doesn’t improve the chances of remembering what you wanted to do.

The doorway effect suggests that there’s more to the remembering than just what you paid attention to, when it happened, and how hard you tried. Instead, some forms of memory seem to be optimized to keep information ready-to-hand until its shelf life expires, and then purge that information in favor of new stuff.

No real solutions to the problem are offered in the article. Write down a list of what you need to do in the next room? The Scientific American reporters offer a theory that other events trigger purging of short-term memory, and these events probably won’t give you enough time to jot down the thing you needed to do just now.


My 2014 in Books

Just a Gwai Lo - Thu, 01/15/2015 - 13:30

I only got to 17 books read in 2014, falling short of the 25 I set out to read. Read more about My 2014 in Books

Published by Richard on January 15th, 2015

Just a Gwai Lo Now Powered by Drupal 7

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 12/09/2014 - 16:30

This blog is now powered by Drupal 7. I’m redirecting some content that Drupal 7 wouldn’t handle to my archive site thanks to the Rabbit Hole module. (Assuming DNS has propagated to you, my SkyTrain Explorer journal should be a live and well, along with some link-blog posts and other whatnots.) This is also going to be a test of the Vinculum module's support of Webmention, since my site powered by Known supports it out of the box. Some related links can be found on the post in question. Read more about Just a Gwai Lo Now Powered by Drupal 7

Published by Richard on December 9th, 2014

2014 Eastside Culture Crawl

Just a Gwai Lo - Mon, 11/24/2014 - 03:42

My photos and memories of walking around East Vancouver taking in the yearly arts and crafts festival. Read more about 2014 Eastside Culture Crawl

Published by Richard on November 24th, 2014

Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City: Eastside Culture Crawl Artists Speak

Just a Gwai Lo - Fri, 11/14/2014 - 01:40

Tonight, at Hot Art Wet City, a wee little studio on Main & 6th Ave., I heard from several artists talk about their work and how they do it. Read more about Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City: Eastside Culture Crawl Artists Speak

Published by Richard on November 13th, 2014

We Can Explore an Endlessly Generated World Freely

Just a Gwai Lo - Tue, 10/21/2014 - 22:22

John Crowley: “To live at once in a time recoverable by a particular sacred calendar and also by a time without qualities, counted as it passes, involves a sort of mental doubling that is perhaps comparable, in the richness it grants to thought and feeling, to growing up bilingual: two systems, each complete, funny when they collide, each supplying something the other lacks, bearing no command to choose between them. Read more about We Can Explore an Endlessly Generated World Freely

Published by Richard on October 21st, 2014

Vancouver Design Week Bike Tour

Just a Gwai Lo - Fri, 09/26/2014 - 00:28

As part of Vancouver Design Week 2014, a senior urban designer from the City of Vancouver took us on a 3 hour bike tour of Vancouver's architecture. We started in Olympic Village, made our way north on the seawall to Chinatown, then rode through Gastown to the convention centre, after which we biked to Stanley Park and then to Third Beach, ending at Mole Hill. Read more about Vancouver Design Week Bike Tour

Published by Richard on September 25th, 2014

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